Conventional shooting galleries with floating light-balls as moving targets suffer various drawbacks as follows:
1. Since in conventional shooting galleries, a vertical jet of water is applied to lift and support a lightball in the air, the corks (or rubber plugs) used as the cartridges of the dummy shotguns are always moistened when passing through the water spout. A wet cork, unless cleaned and dried before reuse, is liable to cause rust in the muzzle and the piston of the dummy shotgun. Moreover, dirt tends to adhere to a wet cork far more than to a dry one. For this reason, the shooters must clean a cork whenever it hits a water spout, and this considerably reduces the amusement valve of the game. PA1 2. The fluctuation of the water-supported lightball results from the perturbation of the hydraulic pressure which varies at random and is beyond the control of designers. Again, this manner of supporting the lightball provides a relatively small range of fluctuation, and fails to offer the players enough excitement. PA1 3. Such kind of devices consumes water. Although the ejected water can be refluxed for water-saving sake, periodic replenishment of the water is still needed due to the loss by evaporation which occurs much faster in ejected water than in still water. PA1 4. Whatever type the water-supported floating ball mechanisms may be used, with or without reflux system, the conventional shooting gallery devices is too large, for the former requires a water supply system and a drainage system, whereas the latter, a recycle system, therefore both are too bulky and cumbersome to adapt to family use, not including the trouble that the applied water may spoil the accommodations such as carpets, rugs, or wall papers.
Accordingly, it is the goal of the invention to provide a low cost means to obviate and mitigate said defects of conventional shooting galleries described above.
It is another object of this invention to provide one kind of air-supported floating ball devices to supercede the conventional ones both to simplify the construction and to relieve the hazards of water staining of household accommodations, to thereby adapt the floating ball device to domestic use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide one kind of shooting gallery device that allows a relatively larger amplitude of fluctuation of the floating ball to enhance the amusement valve it can offer.